Perfect snow conditions await the World Heli Challenge

Perfect snow conditions await the athletes who have traveled around the globe for the resurrection of one of the worlds most explosive snow events, the World Heli Challenge!

The return of this internationally acclaimed helicopter accessed ski and snowboard has been most welcomed by athletes and media around the world. Warren Miller Entertainment, Channel 10 Australia, ONE HD, Fairfax Digital Media, Bigpond TV, Mountainwatch.com and Quattro Media are among the hundreds of media outlets have embraced this events return to the annual snow sports calendar.

The World Heli Challenge brings together a host of athletes representing various backgrounds in ski and snowboard disciplines. A cross breed of alpine racers, terrain park, half pipe athletes and all round free skiers and freeriders meet together where their ability is pushed to limit across three days of helicopter accessed snow sports competition. The event is held in the Mt Aspiring National Park, adjacent to the magnificent Lake Hawea and Makarora Valley near Wanaka, in New Zealand's South Island.

The three major events are:

The "Big Mountain" event tests an athletes ability on very steep terrain where huge cliff drops and technical prowess provide a "wow" factor unlike any other discipline in snow sports.

The "Freeride" event is held on undulating terrain where freestyle and aerial maneuvers tests the acrobatic skills of an athlete - basically the person having the most fun is certain to take the most points.

The "VnC Cocktail Downhill" event is the grand finale of the competition where athletes races head to head together down the mountainside, the first to the bottom and across the line wins.

The concept of adding together an athletes score across three distinctively different days of competition will find out who is the best "all round" skier and boarder in male and female genres of the event.

"The World Heli Challenge is more then just three days of competition of a two week period, its an adventure packed two weeks where athletes take on a vast array of adventure activities that New Zealand is renowned for when they are not competing" says event creator Tony Harrington. "There is certainly time out as well, as we'll cruise Lake Wakitipu on the TSS Earnslaw, visit Milford Sound, play golf, go surfing on the West Coast and kick back lakeside of the magnificent Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka foreshores"...

More information and all images will be available on www.image.net immediately.

A full event start list and athlete bio can be found at www.worldhelichallenge.com
Email info@worldhelichallenge.com
Phone NZ: +61-226127897